NEWS: April 5, 2010
Natural Disasters | The Southwest
Baja Quake Jolts Border Cities
A magnitude 7.2 earthquake rocked Mexico's Baja California peninsula Sunday, jolting millions of people and scattering destruction along the U.S.-Mexico border. At least two people were reported killed in Mexicali, Mexico. Emergency services scrambled to assess the casualties and damage.MORE:
Los Angeles Times
California City Hardest Hit in U.S.
Residents of Calexico, Calif., huddled in the streets, exchanging news on the powerful Mexican earthquake that caused enough damage for police to seal off the border city's downtown.
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Associated Press/Yahoo News

Public Pensions | The Nation
Pensions' Equity Investments Yielding Little
The nation’s 10 largest public pension funds have paid private equity firms more than $17 billion in fees since 2000 as the funds flocked to these so-called alternative investments. But few big public funds ended up collecting the 20 to 30 percent returns that private equity managers often held out to attract pension money.MORE:
New York Times

Officials | The Nation
Letters Demand Governors' Resignations
More than 30 governors received letters from an anti-government group demanding that they resign within three days or face removal from office. The letters from Guardians of the Free Republics do not threaten violence, but in at least two states, Utah and Nebraska, security was increased after the letters were received.MORE:
Washington Post
Justice Stevens to Retire During Obama's Term
U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens says he "will surely" retire while President Obama is still in office, giving the president the opportunity to maintain the high court's ideological balance. Stevens, the leader of the court's liberals, turns 90 this month.MORE:
Washington Post

Moyer

Ohio’s Chief Justice Dies
Thomas J. Moyer, who led Ohio's Supreme Court for nearly a quarter-century and was the nation's longest-serving active state chief justice, died at the age of 70 after being admitted to a Columbus hospital with a gastrointestinal ailment that was not thought to be life-threatening.MORE:
Cleveland Plain Dealer

Public Services | The Nation
Big Mailers Wary of Five-Day Mail Service
If the U.S. Postal Service gets its wish, there will be no Saturday mail delivery at this time next year, but the agency needs to sell the plan to its biggest customers. Labor unions have opposed the plan since it was announced. Now mailers have joined in the criticism, though many also think less-frequent delivery is inevitable.MORE:
Federal Times

Technology | Los Angeles County
Laws Hobble Child-Welfare Computer Fixes
A review of computer systems around the country has yielded potential information-sharing fixes that might prevent deaths or injuries in the county's child-welfare system, but none can be put in place without revising laws that restrict information shared among child-welfare workers, doctors, schools and others.
MORE:
Los Angeles Times

Elkins

Austin's Acting CIO Gets the Job
After a series of unfortunate transitions at the top of Austin, Texas' technology department, the city officially has a new chief information officer: Stephen Elkins, who had been acting director of the department since August 2009.MORE:
Government Technology
White House Web Site Goes Mobile
Recognizing the increasing popularity of smartphones among government users and citizens, the White House announced a mobile version of its Web site optimized for portable devices.MORE:
Government Technology

Public Workforce | Houston
Mayor Bans Bias Against Transgendered
Mayor Annise Parker updated a 12-year-old city policy banning discrimination in city hiring, promotions and contracting to include transgendered individuals, a step that won praise from supporters in the gay community but prompted criticism as well.
MORE:
Houston Chronicle
Pittsburgh Public Works Firings Overturned
A Pittsburgh Public Works Department crackdown last year on six employees accused of failing to disclose criminal pasts has ended in reversals and a tab for tens of thousands of dollars in back pay.MORE:
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Infrastructure | San Francisco
Golden Gate Tours Scrapped
Forget those plans to trek through the underbelly of the Golden Gate Bridge. Bridge officials have dropped their plans for a "bridge experience" to help raise money to fill the bridge's budget gap, saying it could conflict with construction projects.MORE:
San Francisco Chronicle

QUOTABLE“Our downtown is shut down, and people everywhere are afraid.”Victor Carrillo, city manager of Calexico, Calif., the U.S. border city hit hardest by the magnitude 7.2 earthquake that rocked Mexico's Baja California peninsula Sunday, killing at least two people in neighboring Mexicali, Mexico
Los Angeles Times| More quotes

DATAPOINT

Sanford

$140,234
Total amount, including an ethics fine, investigation costs and travel and expense reimbursements, paid by South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford in the wake of an investigation launched after he confessed to an affair with an Argentine woman, with the $74,000 ethics fine the largest in the state's history
AP/The State| More data

ANALYSIS & COMMENTARY
Public Pensions | Steve Goldsmith
Costly Pension Promises
The massive unfunded pension liability faced by California--$53 billion as of 2007--presents a disastrous fiscal picture, affecting the state’s bond ratings and painfully diverting resources from needed services. Other governments don’t have to follow California down the road to ruin. To figure a way out, though, we have to understand the way in.MORE:
Ash Institute, HarvardKennedy School